Is there a simple algorithm that can determine if X is prime?

Question

I have been trying to work my way through Project Euler, and have noticed a handful of problems ask for you to determine a prime number as part of it.

1. I kno

Answer 1

Your right the simples is the slowest. You can optimize it somewhat.

Look into using modulus instead of square roots. Keep track of your primes. you only need to divide 7 by 2, 3, and 5 since 6 is a multiple of 2 and 3, and 4 is a multiple of 2.

Rslite mentioned the eranthenos sieve. It is fairly straight forward. I have it in several languages it home. Add a comment if you want me to post that code later.

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Here is my C++ one. It has plenty of room to improve, but it is fast compared to the dynamic languages versions.

// Author: James J. Carman
// Project: Sieve of Eratosthenes
// Description: I take an array of 2 ... max values. Instead of removeing the non prime numbers,
// I mark them as 0, and ignoring them.
// More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sieve_of_Eratosthenes
#include 

int main(void) {
        // using unsigned short.
        // maximum value is around 65000
        const unsigned short max = 50000;
        unsigned short x[max];
        for(unsigned short i = 0; i < max; i++)
                x[i] = i + 2;

        for(unsigned short outer = 0; outer < max; outer++) {
                if( x[outer] == 0)
                        continue;
                unsigned short item = x[outer];
                for(unsigned short multiplier = 2; (multiplier * item) < x[max - 1]; multiplier++) {
                        unsigned int searchvalue = item * multiplier;
                        unsigned int maxValue = max + 1;
                        for( unsigned short maxIndex = max - 1; maxIndex > 0; maxIndex--) {
                                if(x[maxIndex] != 0) {
                                        maxValue = x[maxIndex];
                                        break;
                                }
                        }
                        for(unsigned short searchindex = multiplier; searchindex < max; searchindex++) {
                                if( searchvalue > maxValue )
                                        break;
                                if( x[searchindex] == searchvalue ) {
                                        x[searchindex] = 0;
                                        break;
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
        for(unsigned short printindex = 0; printindex < max; printindex++) {
                if(x[printindex] != 0)
                        std::cout << x[printindex] << "\t";
        }
        return 0;
}

I will throw up the Perl and python code I have as well as soon as I find it. They are similar in style, just less lines.